Solid State

Any Pennywise fans out there?

While driving to Maine late last Friday night and listening to my favorite Maine (by way of Boston) radio station, FNX, I was lucky enough to catch an episode of Loveline. I haven't listened to much Loveline since high school (the only Vermont broadcast comes out of Woodstock), but from time to time I find I'm a little down, and the only cure is to hear Southern teenage gay boys question how soon after their rim job they should be tested for HPV. Not HIV, which you can be tested for, but HPV. Which men can't be tested for, and frankly, only in rare instances even affects you if you only sleep with men.

Oh, sorry, I just went all Mistress Maeve on you.

Back to the music.

So last week's Loveline show featured Pennywise, a band I've never really followed save for seeing them play with Stretch Arm Strong. But they've been around forever. No really, forever. As in twenty years.

This year, actually, this past Tuesday, the band released its ninth LP... for free on Myspace. Yep. Through a partnership with both Myspace and Textango, Pennywise announced that its latest album will be free online from March 25 through... I believe April 6. I can't quite remember the end date. It was late at night and I was distracted by all the rim job talk.

The band admitted while on Loveline that Myspace may have been a little less than pleased with how the deal turned out... something about not really informing the higher ups until after the paperwork had been signed... but in the end no one backed out and the tracks are in fact available. For free. Right now.

So if any of you answered yes to my question of being a Pennywise fan, head right on over here. You do have to be a Myspace member to qualify, which could cost a few cool points if you're too indie for stuff like that, but if you're too indie for stuff like that, you're probably not really into Pennywise anyway.